1500m Swim - 40K Bike - 10K Run 

GOALS:
* Try to get my first triathlon win

ACTUAL TIMES:
Overall Place: 1st
Overall Time: 1:59:08
Swim Time: 21:31 / 13th
Bike Time: 1:01:13 / 8th
Run Time: 34:40 / 1st

SWIM:
Going into the swim I knew I had to get on some fast feet and get out hard in order to compete today. The gun went off and I swam as hard as I could for the first couple of minutes and lost the first and second pack and was swimming in no man's land about 15 meters back from Brian Smith and Jeff Murray. I tried my hardest and couldn't even stay on their feet for the first 200 meters. I need to get in the pool 6 days a week this winter. At this point I was breathing so hard I thought I was going to drown and also thought my race was over because I blew myself up. I maintained that position for the next 5 minutes or so and then decided to put in a big push in effort to try to close the gap. I pushed for about 3 mins and finally got on Jeff's feet and from that point on it was much easier. If anyone talks to Jeff give him my apologies for slapping his feet the whole rest of the swim. I came out of the water in 7th elite (2.5 mins down from the leaders...Wisthoff, Lisska, Gaal). I was actually happy that I had only lost that much time to them and was able to come out of the water with Brian and Jeff.

BIKE:
Ave Watts: 291
Norm Watts: 299
Ave HR: 169 bpm
Max HR: 179 bpm

Got on the bike about 2.5 mins down from the leaders and 10 seconds down from Brian Smith. I passed Jeff within the first mile and rode solo the rest of the way. All I could see was Smith pulling away from me and at one point I saw he was 58 seconds ahead. I couldn't push the pedals any harder. My hamstrings seemed to be the weakest link today as they were really tender going into the race. There were some mentally challenging times out there since I had nobody in sight but I continued to push through. I passed Wisthoff with a few miles to go which put me in 5th place going into the run. I knew that I hadn't had a good bike ride but was just hoping that the rest of the guys didn't put too much more time into me.

On the bike nutrition: 300 cals of eGel + 2 Succeed caps and 1.5 bottles of water.

RUN:
I saw Jen after I got out of transition and she told me that I was about 3:15 down from Lisska and Gaal (leaders) and anywhere from 90 seconds to 2 mins down from McCall and Smith. At this point I knew I had my work cut out for me because a few of these guys can hold their own on the run.

During the first mile I got a side stitch in my lower left abdomen and worked it out through forceful breathing and pushing on my hip flexor and stomach. I didn't see anyone the first mile and didn't really expect to either. Went through in a decent clip and my legs started to come around for me. I took water at the first aid station and kept on plugging away. By mile two I saw two guys up ahead and it turned out to be McCall and Gaal. Had a brief chat with them and then moved forward. About a mile later I caught up to Smith and he said that Lisska was about 2 mins up the road. I really didn't think that I'd be able to catch him as Kevin is a pretty good runner but kept pushing forward. With about 1.5-2 miles to go I saw Behme and he told me that Kevin was 58 seconds up the road and I thought "I can catch him" and picked up the pace and intensity a bit. My breathing was labored but my legs didn't feel all that tired. I was just now starting to crest over lactate threshold (180 bpm on the run). With about a mile or so to go I could see Kevin in the distance and just kept focused on bringing him closer to me. With about a half mile to go I caught up to him and when he heard me he put in a big surge up the hill which took the wind out of me and burned the legs pretty good but I came up on him and we had a brief chat and then I pushed the pace a little bit and it was a close finish. I ended up getting him by only 4 seconds which is pretty close in a 2 hr race. Kevin and I both went under 2 hrs on a challenging course (1:59:08 & 1:59:12) and the next elite finisher was 2:01:45. I think if Kevin would have known that I was coming up on him sooner he would have been able to hold me off but I think I surprised him a bit and it might have been too late at that point. He's a tough competitor and a really nice guy.

SPLITS:
Mile 1: 5:31 (175, 172)
Mile 2: 5:49 (179, 175)
Mile 3: 5:36 (182, 178)
Mile 4: 5:43 (183, 180)
Mile 5: 5:34 (185, 181)
Mile 6: 5:21 (189, 186)
Mile 6.2: 1:06

SUMMARY:
Overall I was really happy with this race. This was my first triathlon win and it was against some stiff competition on a challenging course. I did what I had to on the swim.....I know I can bike better.....and I had the fastest run time on that course in the past 5 years by over 50 seconds.